2+2+3 More Plasma builds, double the joy ! 3X2M and 2.5X1.5M cnc plasma build.

machinedude wrote: i'm not sure why you would need the stock to pass through anything unless you need a spindle bore through hole for a 20 foot bar with a bar feeder of some sorts so things pass through the chuck driving the square tube ? something like that would need a hydraulic chuck in that case.

Exactly, they need it for trusses, so always different sizes and cut shapes.

you might be able to take a normal tail stock and mount a self centering 4 jaw chuck to the tail stock via the tapper like a live center? might be able to buy something like this or modify a live center so you can mount a a mounting flange for a chuck ? just rough idea's to kick around.

well on the spindle side doing the moving the 4 Jaw chuck has to have the through hole big enough for the biggest stock they plan on using and it would be designed like a lathe spindle. the bearings are going to have to be bigger than the spindle bore so the shaft everything is is mounted to has a big enough through hole and enough meat on the walls to support everything.

Tom if take a look at how a two spindle lathe uses a second spindle to do secondary operations i think something along those lines would be the best way to approach what you would like to do.

doing it like this would index well and make use of the entire machine so the only limitation would be the length of the axis.

the second hydraulic chuck would act like a tail stock and the bar feeder all in one. i don't think you need both to drive in sync but orientation in sync of the two would be needed. and a way to work the hydraulic independent. so you would have one on some kind of gear reduction doing the driving and the other would be at the same center height and in line on some kind of linear rail system.you would also need 3 axis on the torch unlike the one built for round stock.so in total you would need 4 linear and one or two rotational axis depending on how complex the tail stock end would need to be?.

here is a link to a video of a twin spindle lathe for some insight to what i am thinking.

After some fine tuning and setting materials in the PlasmaC database, did a quick mock up of manchester united logo and let LinuxCNC do it's thing. Did some more tests on 15mm thick plate so stay tuned for the next video.
Also arranged a bit the cables and the laptop power brick, had to open the plasma cutter as it was cutting only at 55A so turned out that the new torch and cable is not the same as the original one and had to trick it into thinking it is the original cable. Turns out 120A can cut through 15mm of material and 30mm of slats easily !

So finally got to do some production parts run on 15mm thick plate and used the PlasmaC shape-shifting-wizard-thingy, oh what a joy it was and is to use it, but more on that tomorrow with the complimentary video, so stay tuned.

Tom,

There is always hope. Linuxcnc is not clean coded, it has a python firewall. But i don't care.

did a quick mock up of manchester united logo a



Tom you are amazing ! Keep up the good work ! Soon i will visit servie and kosovo.

Grotius wrote: Soon i will visit servie and kosovo.

You are always welcomed, but no hugging !
F@kin chinese and WHO ! :sick:

Here is the T2030 cutting 15mm thick plate at 80A, but i think it could have done it a bit faster than 300mm/m, i was chickened out to try it ! At over 1000 Euro a plate (6x2m) they are not cheap.
Back to the PlasmaC wizard, it is magnificent for very quick designs of industrial parts and very easy to use, the part being cut was designed in 1.5 minutes flat while teaching one of the guys there, it has 10 holes of 24 mm and the outside dimensions of 180x713mm, It does correctly set the feed rate to 60% for that size of hole and the holes came out much better than i thought. Much better!
Thanks to PhillC for all the time and effort he has put to make PlasmaC, to Peter a.k.a PCW for some magnificent pieces of electronics he makes at Mesanet.com and thanks to the LinuxCNC developers and the community for their hard work on Making LinuxCNC what it is = an astonishing machine controller.
Said it several times, but i will say it again : a well configured and setup LinuxCNC machine with Mesa stuff and PlasmaC will put to shame most industrial machines !
Regards,
Tom

You need to get some water in there to protect those slats Tom.

Thanks for the kind words.

6m x 2m x 15mm thick plate for $1,200 ? that's an odd size over here but that is crazy cheap compared to prices over here. a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of 5/8 thick plate cost that much at my local supplier.